Hi Rob:

When you live in a community assigned to a cluster system for elementary schools, you will indicate your first, second and third choice of which school you want your child to attend. They will do their best to accommodate your requests, but you are not guaranteed your first choice. The only reason the school would change over time is if Seminole County changes the zoning boundaries.

This community is a great location with easy access to I4 and the Greenway (417) as well as shopping and schools. Several builders built in this community. It is unique in the fact that the lot sizes are larger than most other neighborhoods. I'd be happy to send you a list of all available homes within the community as well as other homes in the area that might meet your needs. Please feel free to contact me anytime.

Kathy Phillips, Realtor, e-PRO
Coldwell Banker Residentail Real Estate
Lake Mary, Heathrow, Sanford
407-461-5041 Cell
http://www.CentralFloridaHomeSearch.com

Estates at Wekiva tend to have much larger homes than teh 2500sqft range, so depending on your price range I might suggest other neighborhoods (what was the range?). Plus it sounds like you may want a more established neighborhood with friends and long time residents in the community.

As far as your time frame of 10 yrs to live in the home, I don't think you will have much to worry about in the area's you have been considering as they are all in demand neighborhoods.

Please know it is a bit dicey for agents to talk about the local school systems and how they work, as we are real estate experts, not school experts. Your best bet is to call the county education dept for specific questions on how they work. From the link provided below however, I do not think you will have to worry about your children having to change schools after they start at one school, once they are in they are in. However it does seem that there is definitely the possibility that your neighbor's children may go to a different elementary school should their choice be another school.


I do not beleive Orange County has the same "Cluster" system so if that arrangement does not work for you you may want to stick to your other choices in Orange. Like Lake Nona (Northlake park is a great walking neighborhood where you can walk anywhere in the secluded neighborhood including the elementary school with their attached YMCA). Dr. Phillips also has several schools within walking distance to several great neighborhoods. If you want to stick with Seminole County however, the Winter Springs and Oviedo area's do not seem to be in the two "clusters" you will find in the Lake Mary and Sanford Area.

Please feel free to contact me in private however for a quicker response...

GregMTraub@gmail.com

We are looking for a home that's above 2500 sq ft. Our current home is 3000 sq ft not including the basement. We were originally thinking around 2000 sq ft, but since there aren't any homes in florida with a basement, we thought we'd better add an additional 500 sq ft to compensate. I saw a home listed on trulia in the Estates at Wekiva on Spikerush Ct that we love, but the price is about 80k north of where we want to be. School system is a primary concern and then value of the property is very important. We would like to see some appreciation in the property in the time we will be living there, we are estimating 10 years before I'm ready to retire and downsize.

When assigned to the "Northwest Cluster" does that mean that the school my daughter would attend could change over time, does it mean that kids on the same street would attend a different school???

In Seminole County some area's are not assigned specific elementary schools, but assigned within a cluster of schools ( Read about it here http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/choices/elementary/overview.cfm ), This neighborhood falls within the NW Cluster which offers Bentley, Crystal Lake, Idyllwilde, Wicklow, and Wilson.

I-4 is about 3-4 miles away, just a few minutes, and there are roughly 100 properties in the neighborhood, not all are completed homes.

You definitely do have some very specific questions! What size/feel for the neighborhood where you looking for?